Dehumanized yet agentic? When and how organizational dehumanization mediates the effects of abusive supervision on...

Drawing from the dehumanization model and human agency theory, we examined the psychological processes underlying the relations of abusive supervision with employees' well-being (i.e., burnout) and performance (i.e., interpersonal helping behavior), through the sequential mediation of organizational dehumanization (OD), (in)authenticity and powerlessness, and the moderation of employee chronic self-efficacy. We tested our hypotheses in a three-wave time-lagged study with supervisor-employee dyads in China (Study 1, N = 203 dyads) and a four-wave longitudinal study in North America (Study 2, N = 314). Results from both studies supported all of our hypotheses. OD mediated the relations of abusive supervision with employee burnout and interpersonal helping. Furthermore, OD and inauthenticity serially mediated the relation between abusive supervision and employees' burnout, whereas OD and powerlessness serially mediated the relation between abusive supervision and employee interpersonal helping behavior. Employees' chronic self-efficacy moderates the serial mediating effects of OD in the relationship of abusive supervision with burnout and interpersonal helping behavior. The current research extends the dehumanization theory (Haslam, 2006) through the lens of human agency (Bandura, 1989), furthering our understanding on OD processes. It also expands the theoretical understanding on abusive supervision through introducing OD as a critical mediational mechanism and examining human-agency-related mediational and moderational mechanisms, above and beyond past literature focused on resource- and justice-related theoretical processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).